Tiger Moth Posted November 15, 2008 Report Share Posted November 15, 2008 I am 99.9% sure a clip I was watching downloaded a virus and wiped out my system. Here is what happened. I was watching a clip on youtube, a boxing match, when in the middle of the clip some text appeared. It said basically, your system is about to be fcuked, registry destoyed, etc. I immediately exited. As it turns out, I am running Windows Vista Ultimate with automatic updates turned on. So, shortly thereafter, automatic updates were applied and Vista shut my system down. When the reboot happened, it was unsuccessful. Some needed program or dll or whatever was missing and I was asked to insert my boot disk. I acquired my copy of Windows Ultimate Vista via download from the internet. Perhaps I should have known that I should create a boot disk (the download did not advise me to do so nor say how I could do so). So, I was dead in the water. This being Thailand, I immediately purchased a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate for 100 baht. I have an external disk drive and so was able to retrieve all my data. But, it took me about 12 hours to get going again and things are imperfect - for example, I lost all my bookmarks in Firefox. It is slightly possible that the automatic updates from MS for Vista Ultimate caused the problem. But, I think it is 99.9% that the youtube clip did what it said. .001% the automatic updates caused the problem. My only concern for the future is, if I watch a clip on youtube, am I putting my system at risk? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khun_Kong Posted November 15, 2008 Report Share Posted November 15, 2008 In the future, use Mozilla backup extension to make a copy of your bookmarks. It's brilliant. I use it to update bookmarks on all of my secondary computers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khunsanuk Posted November 15, 2008 Report Share Posted November 15, 2008 Hi, Never heard of a virus embedded in a video. Doesn't mean it is impossible of course, just seems highly unlikely to me. Sanuk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiger Moth Posted November 15, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 15, 2008 Well, my first inclination was to think that MS had caused the problem. I had an authorized, legit copy of MS Windows Vista Ultimate for several months and had been using automatic updates - applied by MS via the internet. Thus, it seems I had at the time of the problem, the equivalent of the MS current base version of Vista Ultimate. Since the automatic update and subsequent automatic restart resulted in a failure to restart, this implies to me that MS did not, one single time, test the update that they sent out. While this was my first inclination as the cause of my problem, it was so beyond my belief that I had to consider the video. Otherwise, every user of Vista Ultimate, with automatic updates (must be quite a few), must have had a similar fate. I concluded that no one, not even MS could be so incompetent. But, maybe they were.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shygye Posted November 15, 2008 Report Share Posted November 15, 2008 Not necessarily. The update could have caused a conflict with 3rd party drivers or antivirus software. This has happened in the past. I doubt the vid caused the problem, but you should report the vid to youtube. It would be like a mp3 trashing your system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waerth Posted November 15, 2008 Report Share Posted November 15, 2008 I have had an automatic update with Vista go wrong on me once and it took me a long time to get the laptop up and running again. It took weeks before it was working without snags again. Basically even though you theoratically can leave your comp alone while it is doing an update, practically you cannot ..... w Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soongmak Posted November 15, 2008 Report Share Posted November 15, 2008 Do you use AVG? I heard that the dutch version contained an update that deleted a vital dll file, and subsequently, windows wouldn't start anymore. Was big news in the Netherlands, I think on monday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soongmak Posted November 15, 2008 Report Share Posted November 15, 2008 Some links on avg problems: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/14/avg_false_positive_flash/ http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/11/13/avg-update-cripples-windows-xp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drogon Posted November 15, 2008 Report Share Posted November 15, 2008 Yes AVG had a problem. An update mistook a windows file for a virus -> in some EU countries there were thousands people tkaing their computers to repair shops. Has been solved with another update... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lazyphil Posted November 15, 2008 Report Share Posted November 15, 2008 i use avg but seems ok. but isn't that just brilliant, you download and trust these people to protect your pc only to screw them up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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